6 replies to this topic

[elaine1980]

I'm a new Technical Manager for a Bakery and I'm in the process of developing a risk assessment for the purchase of new equipment and machinery. The intention being that this will encompass health and safety elements in addition to food safety. I have various suppliers working on the health and safety aspects of purchase and I'm now struggling to determine a relevant and concise "checklist" for the food safety side. I've covered basic areas such as ease of dismantling for cleaning to prevent harbourage of bacteria, food contact surfaces being supported by evidence of compliance to the articles in contact with food regulations, moving parts and lubrication points being below open food product areas, etc. Does anyone have any examples of templates or checklists that they are using that I might be able to modify for our factory? Our current practise is to go ahead and buy equipment provided its cheap enough and does the job so anything would be better than what we have at the moment!

Thanks in advance.

[George @ Safefood 360°]

Global food standards lay down general requirements for equipment used in the production of food and in particular for those items that come in direct contact with the product. The rationale is simple - the material may pose a risk of contamination and therefore needs to be assessed. In addition the design of the item of equipment may also create conditions over time that pose a risk of microbiological contamination. For example a poorly designed item may be difficult to clean. The materials and standard of construction may be such that through normal use the product may become contaminated with parts, plastic etc.

In general this area is straight forward once you know the main areas to be included in your risk assessment.

The first step is to confirm that the contact material is suitable for the intended purpose. This typically is done through some form of certification or letter from the supplier confirming that the contact surfaces are suitable for food contact applications. This should be held on file prior to the item being used for product. On occasion the item may be pre-used when purchased and the original documentation is not available. Certification may be done on the basis of a statement from a person who was responsible for the maintenance of the equipment over time.

The following questions can then be posed in the form of a risk assessment:


1. Has a complete risk assessment of the item been conducted to determine potential contamination risks resulting from item wear and tare, damage or missing parts?

2. Is the item design to allow for effective and practical cleaning (including CIP)?

3. Has the item been checked to determine if glass and/or clear plastic can be eliminated,where possible?

4. Is the item constructed of the correct type, grade, colour and quality of material sufficient to prevent contamination?

From the above an action plan and decision can be made. The important point is that this needsto be done prior to using the equipment. This will require management knowledge and commitment to the procedure which in many companies is not standard practice. Including the food safety manager in the decision making processfor large Cap Ex projects is some time away for many companies.

I will shortly post a video in our sponsored forum on this area which you may like to checkout in a few days.

I hope this is helpful.

George

[elaine1980]

Thank you George, this is most helpful and very much appreciated. Gives me a great start in compiling my risk assessment.

[xylough]

Having come from a dairy background where sanitary design of equipment has evolved to high level over more than a century, I was dismayed by my first encounter with bakery equipment. I found it to have many hidden voids and recesses that collect debris and difficult access for cleaning. The most difficult challenge proved to be the fabric proofing baskets. There was no way to  achieve allergen cleaning, so ultimately there needed to be a set of  >100 proofing baskets for each unique allergenic formulation. If money is no object you can have dedicated lines. We chose to discontinue some formulations because profit did not merit the cost. Many of the conveyor belting materials and design were sub par for durability, easy cleaning and access. I recommend an evaluation of formulations, allergens, vis a vis uncleanable food contact surfaces. The equipment to which I refer was brand new of German and Dutch make. There really needs to be a push for better sanitary design in bakery. One also might give serious consideration to the on-going cost of proper maintenance due to non-durable (consumable) materials requiring frequent replacement.  IMO bakery has had a low bar for many years. They tend to be dry clean only, but control panels need to be as water-proof as full wash-down equipment. The legs and feet of equipment do not compare favorably with those in other food processing industries for ease of access and cleaning. This equipment also relied of lots of Ultra violet lamps, but there efficacy was not validated.  Another consideration is the suitability of the equipment design and features to be easily Calibrated; if your HACCP (soon HARPC)  plan has a kill step dependent on achieving a certain temperature you need to calibrate and it should not require 3 days and a team of 3 to perform it. The heat produced by a given piece of equipment with respect to the ventilation and cooling capacity of the room in which you plan to install it is a consideration. It became unbearable to work in summertime and we had to spend a fortune to ventilate with filtered air. Some of the equipment had wheeled trolleys specific to the lifting mechanism, but they did not have lids to cover and protect. Someone cut themselves and bled into one of the chocolate machines; there was no design contingency to sanitize the path-of-chocolate to a blood borne pathogen requirement. It required risk of destroying the machine in order to perform the disinfection procedure that met the requirement with a water based disinfectant. It was a case like when the blown motherboard is 99% of the cost of the entire machine. The Canadian manufacturer did not anticipate the eventuality of needing to disinfect the machine. Well, here ends my litany of items to investigate when evaluating and approving new equipment for now.

[Simon]

Thanks for unearthing this old topic xylough, this subject doesn't get discussed nearly enough on this forum.

We hope to have a webinar covering hygienic (sanitary) design of food processing equipment in the next schedule, it would be a good topic to do.

 

I guess bakery (flour) is quite unique also due to the ability of flour to get absolutely everywhere.

 

Does anyone know if there are any guidelines or standards available that provide a checklist for ensuring food safety elements when specifying new equipment and machinery?

[Charles.C]

Thanks for unearthing this old topic xylough, this subject doesn't get discussed nearly enough on this forum.

We hope to have a webinar covering hygienic (sanitary) design of food processing equipment in the next schedule, it would be a good topic to do.

 

I guess bakery (flour) is quite unique also due to the ability of flour to get absolutely everywhere.

 

Does anyone know if there are any guidelines or standards available that provide a checklist for ensuring food safety elements when specifying new equipment and machinery?

 

Yes, EHEDHG (primarily oriented to hygienic quality)

 

Several of their publications are on this forum (somewhere).

 

http://www.ehedg.org/

[Simon]

I found the topic Charles. 

 

Contains further discussion and a lot of good reference documents.

 

Sanitary Design thread >>